The title seems to have been in development in 2006 and some of 2007 — though it’s by no means clear that it was the only MMO-related title in development at the studio at that time.

What is clear, however, is that Ensemble’s Bruce Shelley mentioned in a June 2008 blog post that they “…set up three prototype teams out of the staff of a major project that we cancelled. After six months of very interesting work, we have now stopped two of those prototypes, with one getting more time to demonstrate the value of its concept.”

Damn, I said this ages ago. Halo is one of the few franchises that would work as an MMO- you’ve got almost as much tech and choice as planetside for gods sake. Playing Marines Versus Elites in a huge battle would be good, plus all the vehicles and scenery.

Halo would make a great MMOFPS (slow-paced, co-op focused combat). I’m not particularly a fan of the games but would be incredibly excited by that. It’s disappointing that they didn’t even explore that option but instead apparently tried a WoW clone. Chasing $^9s I guess.

To be fair, the original vision for Halo was pretty similar to an MMO: huge areas, third-person view, co-op multiplayer, and so on. Damn shame it got turned into a generic if well-executed FPS. I’d still like to play Bungie’s original version, even if I had to run OS9 to do it.

I can only concur – a Planetside-style Halo MMO would have been actually pretty good. The fiction is perfect for such a thing – two clearly differentiated sides, lots of overarching story potential, etc.

Not to mention that the brand recognition is excellent, helps draw people in initially.

If they made WoW in space though, it would get slaughtered, because they’d be competing against WoW itself. To be optimistic, maybe this project has been shot in the head to pave way for a Planetside-style project.

Can someone answer WHY Halo is hated? I played through the entire first and third games, and while it’s hardly worth the 99/100% scores it got, it’s damn fine, polished series of games with entertaining gun and vehicle play, decent multiplayer and one of my favourite set-pieces in gaming to date (playing co-op in the third game with a friend, riding around in a Hornet, dropping each other off on the various Scarab tanks on the level, taking them out one by one).

played through the entire first and third games, and while it’s hardly worth the 99/100% scores it got

I think you answered your question :) Plus Halo fans are stereotyped as frat-boy lugnuts who honestly think Halo is the only FPS game ever made, after Goldeneye of course. Halo’s pretty fun and has excellent multiplayer for a console game…the praise and fanboyism got excessive, though, and that always prompts a backlash.

Heh, I remember that. Wasn’t that from the Lord of the Rings text adventure? That seems like a lifetime ago, now. But it was a very apt and highly amusing reference, I applaud you on your knowledge of old games and wit.

Sometimes one simply has to highlight these things.

@Halo MMO

I definitely agree with those who’ve said that its success or failure would be based on whether it was basically Planetside or Tabula Rasa.

I don’t really know how to say this without being offensive. /sigh So…

Every 360 owner I’ve talked to thus far is a rabid Halo fan, and I’ve ran my own experiments to see the levels to which this goes. The PS3 has nothing like this, which is why I avoided the 360 in the first place, but that’s a story for another day. Really though, I’m talking about fanatical support here, almost to the point where Halo is a religion.

Try insulting Halo in front of any 360 owner, even one that claims they aren’t a Halo fan, see how far you get.

Was there a point to that? Yes. Yes there was. Bear with me.

The failure of Planetside was hinged on the fact that there was no real marketing to speak of, there was no marketing symbol, no known product name, et cetera. It was basically just an FPS on a large scale. I played it, and it was fun. But at the end of the day, that’s all it was. And when people getting bored of it so there were so many less people to shoot at, the game started falling apart.

However, take Planetside and give it a Halo spin and the servers would be filled with people to shoot. I’d actually be interested in playing such a thing even if it were Halo, simply because there would always be so many people around to have fun with. Basically, adding a known product label like Halo to a formula like Planetside could have made it work.

@Okami: Yeah, that concept art is way too far out to reasonably called Halo. Granted, it’s far enough way to actually come back from “that’s not canon!” to “that’s pretty sweet!” to make me disappointed, but as aiusepsi said, I wouldn’t be playing long enough to like it anyway. Here’s to the hope they explore an idea closer to Planetside.

Okay. Ensemble deserved to be shut down. What’s wrong with them? First they corrupt Halo with an Age of Empires knock-off, and then they try to force the mythos into WoW? Halo’s going downhill now that Bungie isn’t involved. Halo: Recon is going to be the last real Halo game. Hopefully Bungie’s next IP will take it’s place nicely.